{"id":280,"date":"2007-03-25T23:02:48","date_gmt":"2007-03-26T06:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/25\/voltaire-on-homer\/"},"modified":"2007-03-25T23:02:48","modified_gmt":"2007-03-26T06:02:48","slug":"voltaire-on-homer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/voltaire-on-homer\/","title":{"rendered":"Voltaire on Homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nNotwithstanding the Veneration due, and paid to Homer, it is very strange, yet true, that among the most learn’d, and the greatest Admirers of Antiquity, there is scarce to be found, who ever read the Iliad<\/i>, with that Eagerness and Rapture, which a Woman feels when she reads the Novel of Zaida<\/i>1<\/sup>; and as to the common Mass of Readers, less conversant with letters, but not perhaps endow’d with a less Share of Judgment and Wit, few have been able to go through the whole Iliad<\/i>, without struggling against a secret Dislike, and some have thrown it aside after the fourth or fifth Book. How does it come to pass, that Homer has so many Admirers and so few Readers? And is at the same Time worshipp’d and neglected? (Voltaire, An Essay on Epick Poetry<\/i>, 48-49)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The more things change, the more they stay the same…there were fake bibliophiles even back in the 18th century! (I typed that from a fascimile, thus the weird spellings and capitalization. I could’ve modernized it, but why? But I did use a regular “s” everytime he had an “s” that looks like an “f”. That’s the bad thing about fascimile versions.) Anyway. I found that amusing. I can just see some 18th-century schoolboy hurling his Homer across the room.<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> Apparently a popular novel of the time. I found one Zaida<\/i> written by Augustus von Kotzebue, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the same, since this essay was published in 1727, and Kotzebue wasn’t born until, like 1760. In any case, novels were new at the time and generally held in contempt and considered only suitable for flighty women, which is the import of what he’s saying here.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notwithstanding the Veneration due, and paid to Homer, it is very strange, yet true, that among the most learn’d, and the greatest Admirers of Antiquity, there is scarce to be found, who ever read the Iliad, with that Eagerness and Rapture, which a Woman feels when she reads the Novel of Zaida1; and as to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":274,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/study-break\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":0},"title":"Study break","author":"Jandy","date":"March 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past two days, I have read (or skimmed) G.W.F. Hegel, J.G. Herder, David Hume, and Karl Marx (but not much Marx, because I got bored). I have also read about Alexander Pope, Homer, Friedrich Schiller, Montesqieu, neo-classicism, and the philosophy of history. (Being a grad student does wonders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "School"","block_context":{"text":"School","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/school\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2817,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/tv-animation-domination-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":1},"title":"TV: Animation Domination #1","author":"Jandy","date":"September 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Family Guy 8x01: Road to the Multiverse How did Family Guy know alternate universes were my favorite thing ever? Aside from the one where everything is 1000 years more advanced because Christianity never existed (seriously, I love the show, but does it have to take potshots at Christianity in almost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Television"","block_context":{"text":"Television","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1131,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/objective-and-subjective-aesthetics\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":2},"title":"Objective and Subjective Aesthetics","author":"Jandy","date":"May 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a couple of month-old posts over on Gene Edward Veith's blog that I've been thinking about for, well, a month. Not constantly, of course. And I haven't commented on them, and probably won't, because of the amount of time that's passed, but still. I'm thinking about them.\u00a0 It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1046,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/american-idol-top-ten-girls\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":3},"title":"American Idol: Top Ten Girls","author":"Jandy","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[Feedreader\/Facebook\/Livejournal readers click through to see the embedded liveblog]","rel":"","context":"In "Television"","block_context":{"text":"Television","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1068,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/american-idol-top-eleven\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":4},"title":"American Idol: Top Eleven","author":"Jandy","date":"March 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"And the liveblog's back. [Feedreader\/Facebook\/Livejournal readers click through to see embedded liveblog].","rel":"","context":"In "Television"","block_context":{"text":"Television","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1061,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/american-idol-top-eight-guys\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":5},"title":"American Idol: Top Eight Guys","author":"Jandy","date":"March 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[Feedreader\/Facebook\/Livejournal readers click through for embedded liveblog. At or after seven, that is.]","rel":"","context":"In "Television"","block_context":{"text":"Television","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}